


At My Right (Left) Hand

by AquilaMage



Category: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Genre: Anxiety, Betrayal, Friendship, Gen, Just a lot of feelings involved, Not an au but the details don't quite match canon, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, including my own, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-08-29 02:20:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8471848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AquilaMage/pseuds/AquilaMage
Summary: They had always been together through everything. But in the events that were to change their land's fate, things went differently.In which Ravio's leaving Lorule has a deep emotional impact on Hilda and himself.





	1. Chapter 1

Of course Hilda had noticed that Ravio hadn’t shown up in a while. She always noticed those things. But that was just what he did, and she understood that he needed time alone, they had all been under a lot of stress. But she couldn’t afford to take the time to find him now and see what exactly was what it was now. Something whispered to her that she was being a terrible friend, that she never would have left him alone before this project started. _You’re disgusting, why are you doing this to him you know too well what it’s like how could you?_

But she found herself shaking her head, forcing her eyes closed and willed dry. Each time another planning session with Yuga sent up pains in her stomach and caught apologies in her throat she wasn’t even sure what for, she forced them back. _Of course I understand. That’s why I’m doing this. Because I know I can do better for my kingdom, they’re depending on me to fix that which my ancestors could not, I can’t fail them and this is the only way. If I just get this right, I won’t have to worry again, everything will be fine, and we can have all the time in the world together. This will make things better for him too. And I will sacrifice anything for that._

It wasn’t until a while after she had sent Yuga off that she finally went down to the house to find it empty. At first she thought he must simply be out somewhere until her reason kicked in. _You know him too well, where would he possibly have gone that wasn’t the castle._ There were only two options: either something, someone had happened to him, potentially that which she couldn’t hope to save him from, or worse…  


Her mind brought up, unbidden, the moments from months ago when he had objected to her plans. It had been only a small remark: a shy comment quickly taken back as he pulled his hood further down his face, but now she began to see it in a different light. She knew him. While he wasn’t one to object strongly or argue on an issue, Ravio would tell her if he felt something was wrong.  


Wouldn’t he?  


_Please_ , her mind told her, _you know better_. He knew how important this was, he wouldn’t dare go against her in this matter.  


_So... am I doing the right thing, if he felt this strongly, then I couldn’t possibly…  
_

_No. If he really felt that bad, he would still give you something. He depends on you too much for that. He’s abandoned you. Why would he ever support something so bold, something that would actually be productive  
_

_Stop it! I know he wouldn’t do anything against me._  


But still, the fact remained that he had abandoned her. She was alone, and now there was no one she could trust to bring her plan to fruition but Yuga and herself. And there was no going back, no second option that could save the kingdom, so she had to proceed regardless of the consequences.  


And if she had to go it alone, so be it.  


\---

Hilda actually managed to keep steady to that until the moment came for her to come into the action. She felt the hero’s presence appear and turned to greet him, to send him out on his false quest that would finally save Lorule, her face impassive despite the knowledge that she was directing him to destroy his own land in the process. And to her credit, her expression never broke, only a light inhale betraying that he had affected her. Inside, though, everything shattered. Because his features were painfully familiar. The round face, slightly upturned nose, even the way his eyes darted around the space – although it was almost disorienting to see such a bold expression. _The goddesses really do have no mercy for me._ Shifting her attention to restraining Yuga came as a relief. It meant she could break contact with the hero, sending the last of her message telepathically, but in the end it didn’t lessen the twist of her stomach. Goddesses, it was the same look of trust she never thought she’d see again and she couldn’t handle it any longer or she’d be giving everything up.  


When the deed was finally done, she sank to the ground, knees scraping across the cold stones that echoed her gasping breaths. _Get ahold of yourself. There’s no turning back now._ It didn’t stop the tears, but it was enough for her to get up afterward, wiping her face clean as she forced it all down, barring her feelings behind the cold front of apathy she’d worked so hard to maintain these past few months.  


Hilda managed not to think about it for some time, until the news of the hero’s progress built up to the point that she could hardly believe how quickly he was working. So accomplished. _But of course. He has the power of the gods on his side, even if he doesn’t have the Triforce yet._ It wasn’t fair, the simple fortune of being born into a land of light gave him. Anger built inside her and she let it sit, corroding inside until it was either let it out or feel as though she would come apart and she found herself in front of the castle’s only other inhabitant, if she could even be called that. Hilda gripped her staff as she looked up at the portrait of Zelda. The lovely, fair princess of Hyrule, the blessed and favored land of the goddesses. Even though she knew the girl had as little control over her status as she did, it didn’t lessen the pain any.  


“How fortunate you are,” she spoke coldly, “to have such a hero in your land. Such dedication, such risk, giving everything to save his land, and for you.” She swallowed, stumbling as she continued. “I suppose you believe in him, don’t you? You know that he’ll come and save you. There was never a doubt about it. But not this time.” Her eyes narrowed as her expression hardened. “Your hero is going to save _this_ world, and it doesn’t matter what faith you have in him, I’ll show you that it’s foolish to think that anyone could be that dedicated.” Glaring at the painting, she gave a huff of disdain before leaving the chamber. It was supposed to be triumphant, so why did it feel like her words were cutting back at her instead?  


By the time the hero arrived, the golden light of his Triforce giving off a warmth like she’d never felt before, Hilda was ready. She felt a rush of power, of confidence, go through her as she removed Zelda’s Triforce from the painting. This was how it was supposed to be. She would take Courage for herself and finally rebuild the kingdom. Everything would be right again, and she would be the one to do it.  


So why was everything falling apart? The hero made quick work of Yuga, even combined with Ganon’s might, and she called to him as the fear rose in her again, near-palpable suffocation that she fought to get past, _had_ to think past now that she was alone. “Yuga, give me your Triforce!” He knew what needed to be done, had promised to get her what she wanted, the only one who had stood by her.  


Or so she had thought. A burst of magic and he imprisoned her in one of his portraits, leaving her frozen, her mind unable to process the knowledge that she had been betrayed again. When she burst forth upon his defeat, even thoughts of restoring Lorule fell aside as she lunged at the hero, letting her magic burst forth in harsh waves, anything to subdue the hero as her mind screamed at her that she had to do this. There would be no triumph in victory, now that she knew she had no one left, but she would rather destroy herself than allow anyone to think that she had needed them to do this. She sent spell after spell at him, using her dark vines to slowly trap the hero and the princess, finally lunging at them to claim both pieces at once when a single ray of light cut through her magic. Falling, all she could see was the afterglow of the princess’s arrow on the blade of the Master Sword as it came to meet her.  


“Wait!”  


Hilda registered a voice calling, from somewhere outside of their fight, but everything faded for a moment, and when she came to, all that she could register was noise. Shouting. As she managed to sit up, she saw the hero, confused and annoyed. The moment he noticed her awake, he darted toward her, sword arm outstretched, only to be stopped by a figure that spoke a few words and lowered their hood.  


Whatever was said next, she didn’t even process enough to physically hear. Every drop of her attention was fixed on the person in front of her as he rapidly spoke, hunching his shoulders and biting his lip every time he stopped to breathe, but at the same time keeping a firm grip on the hero’s sword. Ravio turned to her, and her heart seemed to stop. She glanced over to the Hylians and he shook his head.  


“Don’t. Please, it’s not worth it. It’ll destroy them, and they haven’t done anything to deserve that any more than we did.” He was nearly hyperventilating as he sank down to his knees next to her. “Would you really want someone else to go through what you have?”  


That was it. Hilda bowed her head, finally letting the full weight of what she’d been doing fall on her. “No,” was all she managed before curling in on herself, missing whatever Ravio said to the other two and only barely managing to notice when they started to leave. A slight tug on her dress, and he was pulling her up just enough to stand and send them back to Hyrule, a choked “I’m so sorry” escaping from her mouth even as she couldn’t meet their eyes.  


The light faded, and the two of them were left alone. Hilda sat on the edge of the cliff, staring blankly into the ravine. “You stopped them,” she finally commented, squeezing her hands together in her lap. “Why? Why even come back? I don’t deserve even this much mercy, for the goddesses’ sake, I tried to kill them. All this time,” tears flew off her face as she shook her head, “I wondered how you could leave, but I get it now. How could you not, with what I wanted to do?”  


“No, no. That’s not true.” Some shuffling, and he was crouched next to her. One hand went up to her face, but he flinched and drew back into himself. “You were desperate and sacred, of course it seemed like a good idea. I knew it was wrong, but I didn’t try to stop you because I’m a coward. Abandoning you when you needed me most; I’m the one who messed up.”  


They stared at each other for a moment before Hilda dove at him, wrapping her arms around his back and pressing herself into him. After recovering from the initial shock, he put his head on her shoulder, leaning the side of his face into hers as he hugged her back. They might have stayed like that for a while, holding each other as if letting go would mean losing the other, if not for the explosion of light in front of them.  


There was a crackle of magic that spread out from a point in the sky, expanding into the shape of three connected triangles that solidified and hung in the air. As that happened, a rush of energy swept out in all directions, moving out and across all of Lorule. The two froze as they registered what had just happened. “The Triforce…” Hilda whispered under her breath, frowning.  


“Did they…wish ours back?” Ravio was staring up at it.  


A faint smile appeared on her face as she brushed his bangs back. “I think so,” she said, through more tears. “Thank you.”  


“Wait, me or them?”  


Hilda pulled him into another hug. There would be time to talk later, but right now all that mattered was that she hadn’t ever really lost him. Whatever happened to the kingdom next, she always had Ravio. “Yes.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand Ravio's side

Arguing wasn’t exactly Ravio’s strong suit. If you asked him, not many things were, except maybe being nervous and overthinking things. _That_ he was good at.

And right now that fact was hitting him the hardest as he pushed his door closed and stepped down the hill in what he hoped was a determined way, only to scurry back a moment later to check that he’d actually locked it. Monitoring his usual nervous habits was hard enough, but with the looming prospects of Really Bad things on the horizon, they were worse than normal.

Every step was an effort, and he found himself chewing on the edge of his scarf just to ground himself as he passed the castle, trembling so hard that balancing was almost impossible. What was he even thinking? He stopped. Everything in him was screaming to stop, to go back home and lock himself inside and stay there until it was too late to do anything and maybe even longer. Sure, it would mean he was allowing an entire world to be destroyed by omission, and potentially condemning his best (and only) friend to the anger of the goddesses, or Hyrule’s taking revenge, or both, or some other malicious force. He didn’t know for sure that something bad _would definitely_ happen, but that certainly wasn’t enough to keep his mind from imagining it anyway. And the alternative, which he was currently pursuing, was worse. What he was about to do was go against everything Hilda was planning, not with words, but with actions. He was running away like a coward, and he didn’t even have the decency to pick the option where he wasn’t literally betraying the one person who meant everything to him.

As the castle passed out of view behind the trees, he had to stifle a gasp as the urge to cry got too strong. He wrapped his scarf around his hand over and over, pausing partway through at the feeling of something rustling his hair. “Sheerow?”

The bird gave a small chirp and climbed out from under his hood.

“Hey buddy,” he said, a little unsteadily, as he caught Sheerow in both hands. “Sorry, just not doing as well, you know.” A sniffle and a hiccup before nuzzling the bird against the side of his face and placing him back on his head. “But I have to do this anyway.”

Ravio made it to the philosopher’s hut by the graveyard with no incident. Perring through the bushes, though, he shot back down immediately, shaking so hard it was a miracle half the leaves didn’t come off immediately. Yuga was there, and that could only mean that he was going through with the plan. But why? Nonononononono, this wasn’t supposed to be happening for a few days at least, they were moving now and there was no way Ravio would be able to get through and DO anything, much less enact his plan to try to fix things. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He was a fool and a coward to think it would have worked anyway. Why would they believe someone like him? He wouldn’t have had the guts to go through with it anyway, talking to complete strangers of the highest status, convincing intimidating, probably very skeptical people to listen to him on matters of the security of the whole land and their Triforce? Who was he kidding; he couldn’t even argue with someone he explicitly knew trusted his opinion for more than a few seconds without melting into tears.

Curled into a ball, he almost didn’t notice Sheerow zip out of his hood and toward the building. “No!” he whispered, sitting up as much as he dared. For all he knew, Yuga was still outside, but even if he was in already he would still know Ravio was there if he saw Sheerow, and there was no way that would end well. He didn’t trust Yuga at all, and he was pretty sure it wasn’t just his anxiety when he felt Yuga knew Ravio had expressed doubts about the plan. The last time he had been around, the creep had even gone so far as to make an offhanded comment that sounded very much like a threat to put him in a painting. It had been a few hours later that he managed to get off the floor of the room he’d locked himself in, and a few days before he didn’t jump at anything that might have been the man, since he hadn’t gotten the nerve to tell Hilda about it and actually deal with the problem. Who knew what Yuga might do if he saw him now?

Which left him in the precarious situation of creeping closer and closer to the building, glancing over his shoulder constantly and whispering to Sheerow, who had taken to darting back and forth over the door. Just as he got close enough to jump and catch him, arms outstretched, the bird darted inside the building, leaving Ravio to fall through the doorway. He froze as soon as he noticed that he could see the torchlight from where he was. If he was seen, there was no going back. Heck, he’d probably end up as a mark on the wall and he’d have done nothing ever and no-one would even care because it’s not like he-

Ravio yanked on the edge of his hood so it pulled over his face and strained the section where the fabric connected to his robe. _I can’t do this. Not now. Just-just shut up and let me get through, and I can panic all I want._ Please, _please._ With a deep breath, he finally pushed himself up and managed to stare into the room with minimal shrinking back. It was empty, the only objects of interest being a single torch and the crack along the center of the far wall, bright golden light seeping out. Before he could give himself a chance to think about things and maybe give up, he thrust his hand forward and onto the very middle of the crack, letting the flow of magic draw him inside, seeming to stretch him out until he fell to a floor that was carpet and wood rather than dirt and stone.

“Sheerow…” he mumbled, then flinched when there wasn’t an immediate response. “Sheerow?” This time, higher, with a note of urgency.

There was a tiny squeak and something moved in his pocket.

“Oh thank the goddesses.” He picked him up, holding the bird close to himself. “Don’t scare me like that.”

As he moved, he felt the tingling sensation on his left arm give out, looking down just in time to see the magic in his bracelet flicker and die out. “Guess this really _was_ a one-way trip” he murmured, absently petting Sheerow. He honestly hadn’t been sure that even one way through the portal would be possible; the magic wasn’t his, after all. After they had found the first crack into Hyrule, Yuga had been the only one able to find a way to use it with his wall-painting magic, which was part of why he was even so involved in the first place. Ravio had to resort to using the old bracelet he had found to siphon some of Yuga’s ambient magic whenever he was around the man. It had been an incredibly slow process, and now unless he managed to find the man again, there was no way back to Lorule unless he wanted to attempt even riskier magic.

He took one look back, and gave a sad smile when he noticed the light from the crack on this side was a dark purple. The only thing his mind could think was that even in this simple way, the power of Hyrule showed as so much more than their own, a force for life and hope rather than the gaunt dreariness of their own dying land. Ravio rubbed the back of his hand against his face to make it look like he wasn’t still crying as much as possible, pulled the hood fully over his face, and crept out into the blazing sun of Hyrule.

\---

A matter of hours later had Ravio sinking to the floor again, this time in a small but very comfortable house. In that short amount of time, he’d almost had a run-in with Yuga (again), realized that they were accelerating the plan even more and subsequently that warning the castle was no longer an option, found a collapsed boy who looked almost exactly like him, and somehow gained enough of the boy’s trust to be able to stay in his house _and_ talked him into warning the castle for him. He might have been too much of a coward to do the most basic things that would save the world, but at least his light world self wasn’t.

Oh boy, that was a heavy thought. His Hyrulean counterpart looked and acted the part of the hero (heck, probably actually _was_ a hero) in every way that Ravio didn’t. Nit that it was a new concept for him; he knew he was a failure of a hero, but it was another thing to have to see a reminder of what he could have been.

A sound from out the window sent him diving under the bed, huddled as best he could out of sight until it was silent again. When he peeked out from the smallest section of window, he found that it was a small cart passing by. Hyrule was much busier than Lorule, probably because the people could afford to go about their lives without the constant fear of being attacked. Must be nice. Not that he would be able to enjoy that anyway. No, now that he had set things in action, best stay put. As long as he didn’t leave the house, Yuga shouldn’t be able to find him, and there was no chance of someone seeing through his disguise and recognizing who he was.

The only person he had to fool was Link. It wasn’t too hard at first, playing the part of an oddball merchant (although he often worried he was being over-the-top in his attempt to act like someone with confidence, but in his arguments with himself concluded it could be written off as eccentricity), even giving Link his bracelet since he didn’t have any use for it. _That_ had been a surprise when he learned it had saved the hero from Yuga’s painting magic and absorbed a good deal of the man’s magic in the process. Link might have been a bit happier if he hadn’t been charging so much for the items he was renting, but it was the only way Ravio could see of making sure he didn’t get kicked out of the place. As long as the hero needed the items, he couldn’t afford to let him leave.

In contrast to Ravio, Link hardly ever talked, especially about his journeys. As a result, Ravio only realized that he had found a way into Lorule because of a passing remark about thieves’ town, which had sent a jolt through his stomach and made him so shaky that he was surprised Link didn’t seem to notice a thing. When the hero left, he pushed his hood fully off for the first time since he’d gotten there, trying to stop it from feeling like the air had suddenly thickened until it was unbreathable.

Link had been to Lorule. That meant he had seen Hilda. But then, things were still going according to her plan. He wasn’t doing enough here, was he? Things would still turn out badly. No, no, nononnononono. He had seen Link, he had to see through it, right? But then again, as far as he knew, the boy believed _his_ ridiculous act, and Hilda was much better with dealing with people. Sheerow chirped at him and nested in his hair as he paced around the room, twisting the hem of his sleeve. No. It was going to be fine. Because of him, Link had access to all sorts of magical weapons, not to mention Yuga’s own magic. By the end, he would be strong enough so that she wouldn’t be able to take the Triforce. Maybe he should even start letting Link buy the items so he could have more use from them…

But where would that leave Hilda? Sure, this way Hyrule would be fine, but there was no certainty about how Link would treat her, and he didn’t want her hurt, just stopped.

The thought haunted him every moment he wasn’t distracting himself, which was becoming harder and harder to do as Link bought up more items and spent increasingly longer time away. No matter what scenario he started with, he could never force his mind to end it well.

One day, he finally managed to broach the subject to Link, in an indirect way. As the boy was going through his wallet, Ravio leaned over the side of the table to watch him. “So, Mr. Hero, have you given any thought about how all this ends?”

Link paused. “Dunno. I mean, I just have to defeat Yuga and Ganon, and that saves Hyrule and Lorule, and things are fine, right?”

“I suppose.” He leaned in further, trying to make his voice sound overdramatic rather than terrified. “But what if you couldn’t save both, huh?”

The hero raised his eyebrows at him, giving a flat look before answering. “That’s not really funny. But I guess… I would have to pick Hyrule. I mean, as long as it was possible, I wouldn’t let that happen, but it’s my home, you know?”

“Yeah.” He took the money from Link’s hand with little other commentary, mulling over the implications. It didn’t really tell him anything more, and he was still left with that gnawing feeling inside, corroding away at him.

The only upside was that he didn’t have to deal with it for much longer. Only days later, Link told him that he was going to go up against Yuga as he left. The door swinging closed sounded like a heavy drum, the dropping of something that could never hope to recover from the fall. Ravio stared at it without really looking, feeling separate from his body even as he moved it through the actions of packing up his things. He knew what had to be done, had known the whole time. Confronting Hilda was the only way to stop her that wouldn’t end in harm for her. He might be enough of a coward and a traitor to stay silent as she debated about what to do, to refuse to debate with her when she made a decision he knew she would regret, to leave her alone and probably shatter her sense of self when she needed support the most, but even he wasn’t bad enough to let her be killed or imprisoned or sealed away or whatever Hyrule would do to her.

He owed her this much at least.

And if she never wanted to speak to him again after, if she told him to leave forever, even if she decided she wanted him dead for what he had done, that was fine. He deserved it, and she would be safe. That was the only thing that mattered.

Tossing his bag over his shoulder, he exited the house without looking back. Surprisingly, there was a crack just outside, so he didn’t even need to go far to find one, which sent a spark down his nerves. If he couldn’t do this, then he would be helpless to act. Carefully, he placed both hands against the seeping purple of the rift, willing his magic to connect with it. He tried to concentrate on recreating the feeling of his first trip, on mimicking a magic he didn’t have. With only the briefest of warnings, he was pulled through. This trip was much rougher, twisting and turning him, the magic around him almost tugging at his own small reserves, finally depositing him on the ground, completely exhausted. “I did it,” he whispered, feeling the beginnings of tears forming.

He managed to get up and going after falling twice, and even then it was unsteady going. It was fortunate he hadn’t been planning on using magic, since the little he had was gone. Equally so was the fact that he was familiar with the castle, since the main entrance had become what looked like a maze of traps and monsters, forcing him to go a roundabout way through long unused corridors until he was standing at the door to Hilda’s room and there was shouting and the bright, high sound of swords and the deep reverberations of magic being cast and oh goddesses what if he was too late she might be hurt she might be _dying, Hilda HildaHildaHilda_  and the next thing he was conscious of was that he was jumping in through the window, shouting as much as his voice would let him.

“Wait!”

Link skidded to a halt, sword drawn on a dark figure that was huddled over on the floor and _oh goddesses Hilda_. Ravio stepped in between them, arms held out as he babbled, something about waiting, he would explain, please just give him a minute. Link looked as though he wanted to push him aside but the princess behind him (shitshitshit she looked so much like her, but happier, less burdened even in the middle of such conflict) called for him to stop.

“Please, you don’t understand. She was only trying to help Lorule. Let me talk to her.” Seeing the sharp look on both their faces, he did the only thing that he could think of, throwing his hood back and showing them his face for the first time. Link froze, nearly dropping his sword, and the princess opened her mouth in a perfect o, glancing between the two of them before closing her eyes and nodding.

Ravio turned slowly, trembling as he looked at Hilda. She looked a mess, eyes darker than they had been at her worst insomnia, pale and with the coldest stare he had ever seen. He noticed her look over at the others and shook his head.

“Don’t. Please, it’s not worth it. It’ll destroy them, and they haven’t done anything to deserve that any more than we did.” He was nearly hyperventilating as he sank down to his knees next to her. He had to convince her, because no one else could, and there was no other way to save her (and to be honest, he doubted even if this would). “Would you really want someone else to go through what you have?”

The words hurt to say, he knew it would pain her, but when she dropped her head with a single, faint “no” and curled up on herself it was all he could do not to join her. Instead, he turned to the other two. “I’m so sorry. She-she didn’t think we had another choice. But you don’t deserve that. We’ll send you home, and we’ll never bother you again. Just please, let us be.”

Neither spoke, but they glanced at each other and finally nodded slowly, gravely.

Ravio let them collect themselves and start toward the door before he reached back down to tug lightly at Hilda’s dress. She followed his lead, as responsive as a doll as he took his bracelet back from Link and channeled its magic to send the two back, the crack fading with the last of the bracelet’s power. There. No way for anyone to travel between again. All of the connections would fade within a few days, and Hyrule would heal and forget and move on. Lorule… well, at least he could say they weren’t any worse off.

Hilda finally moved, dropping to sit on the edge of the cliff, staring off into space. “You stopped them,” she finally commented, squeezing her hands together in her lap. “Why? Why even come back? I don’t deserve even this much mercy, for the goddesses’ sake, I tried to kill them. All this time,” tears flew off her face as she shook her head, “I wondered how you could leave, but I get it now. How could you not, with what I wanted to do?”

 The words caught in his throat. Him, justified? He was the bad person here. Hilda was just afraid and misguided. With a bit of effort, he sat next to her. “No, no. That’s not true.”  One hand automatically went to comfort her, but he stopped. She could hardly want _him_ to be touching her after all this. “You were desperate and scared, of course it seemed like a good idea. I knew it was wrong, but I didn’t try to stop you because I’m a coward. Abandoning you when you needed me most; I’m the one who messed up.”

He stared at her, waiting for some kind of negative reaction, for her to scream or hit him or even shove him off the edge. Instead, she threw herself at him, pulling him into a deep embrace. After a moment of sitting there frozen, waiting for it to turn bad, he felt the light shudders going through her and realized that this _wasn’t_ a trick and it wasn’t his imagination. Ravio sunk into it, squeezing her even tighter as he leaned his face into hers, nearly losing it when she pressed her head back in a familiar motion he thought he might never feel again. He thought he could stay like this forever, and might have if not for the explosion of light in front of them.

There was a crackle of magic that spread out from a point in the sky, expanding into the shape of three connected triangles that solidified and hung in the air. As that happened, a rush of energy swept out in all directions, moving out and across all Lorule. The two froze as they registered what had just happened. “The Triforce…” Hilda whispered under her breath, frowning.

Another wave of warmth ran through him, this time having nothing to do with the fact that they were still holding onto each other, as he realized what this must mean. “Did they…wish ours back?”

Hilda looked at him, that familiar fond smile on her face as she brushed his hair out of his face. “I think so,” she said, a few tears evident on her face now. “Thank you.”

Everything went fuzzy for a moment. There was no way… “Wait, me or them?” he tried to sound joking, to not betray the hope that she might _actually_ be forgiving him.

In response, she only hugged him more. “Yes.”

As she traced patterns across his back and he played with the ends of her hair (he was going to have to brush it out for her soon), Ravio could barely contain himself, eventually working his way into full-on sobs. The absolute sincerity of her statement left him without question that she still trusted him, she understood why he had done what he had, and she knew as well as he did that now, the only thing that mattered was that they both knew they had each other, now and forever.

**Author's Note:**

> I just have a lot of feelings and headcanons about both of these two, and this came out of that. I'm thinking of doing a second chapter for Ravio's side of things, so we'll see.


End file.
